Colver, Charles P.

In 1879 Charles P. Colver left Wisconsin and came up the Missouri River to Montana. He settled in Prickley Valley near Helena and ran a freight line into Helena with three yoke of cattle and a wagon. In 1881 his brother Fred T. Colver joined him and they headed for the Judith Basin. Fred Colver celebrated his 20th birthday at the Reed and Bowles Stockade northwest of Lewistown, where they County Farm was later located. They had been on the trail six weeks from Fort Benton, all the time, looking for a location to settle. On July 3, 1881, they arrived at Warm Spring creek between the Judith and Moccasin Mountains and took up their homesteads. The summer of 1881 they spent working their ranches, putting up about 20 tons of wild hay and building corrals and stables. In the fall, Fred went to work for Governor Brooks on his cattle ranch. In 1885 Charles went back to Iowa to claim his bride, Jessie McDonald. They had the lower ranch, now the Stanley Vanek place.